In the news
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a Princeton University professor, canceled her lectures after receiving death threats for giving a commencement address at a Massachusetts college during which she called President Donald Trump “a racist and sexist megalomaniac.”
Mary Taylor, 51, Ohio’s lieutenant governor, said of her two sons, ages 26 and 23, that “like many Ohioans, my family is struggling with addiction, and the opiate crisis has … come in my front door.”
Brad White, sheriff of Lamar County, Ga., sent out an alert when a dog breeder reported that two men stole three Yorkshire terrier puppies and fled in a car, prompting a police chase in a neighboring county that ended when a Georgia State Patrol trooper rammed the suspects’ vehicle, arrested them and recovered the puppies.
Jack Douglas, a licensed trapper, was called in and lifeguards kept people out of the water until an 8-foot alligator found taking an early morning swim and strolling along the public beach at Tybee Island, Ga., could be captured.
Santiago Vasquez, 84, of Killeen, Texas, was arrested on a murder charge, accused of beating with a cane and then fatally shooting an 80-year-old neighbor with whom he’d had a yearslong dispute, police said.
Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, signed into law a bill making the state the first to issue, if the parents request, “certificates of nonviable birth,” which will acknowledge miscarried fetuses and allow the parents to officially name them.
Lisa Corcoran, 44, of Vienna Township, Mich., faces a larceny charge after authorities said she stole a handmade bench, flowers and more than 100 other items from 24 graves at cemeteries that she then used to decorate her home.
Jessica Bruss said she “almost drove off the road” when her 8-year-old son pointed out the word “SEX” in large letters on the side of a water tower in Sussex, Wis., left when crews painting the town’s name on the structure took a break midway through to let the primer dry.
Ezekiel Stevens, 18, a Darlington County, S.C., jail inmate who was on a hospital visit, yanked a driver from his car and tried to escape, but Stevens’ bid for freedom was foiled when the driver, who had kept his key fob, kept shutting off the engine and unlocking the doors that Stevens tried to lock to keep officers out, reports say.